1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process and an apparatus for manufacturing the so-called bag-in-box type fluid container in which a carton contains an internal bag and the internal bag receives a content (i.e. a fluid such as a liquid or fine particles and especially the liquid)
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, Japanese examined utility model application publication SHO.62-15154 and Japanese examined patent application publication SHO 63-57281 disclose manufactures of such fluid container.
In the former, a spout-holding portion provided beforehand in a flap of an external box (i.e. carton) holds a base end of a spout of an internal bag. After the internal bag which has been filled with a content is placed in the external box, flaps are folded inward so that the base end of the spout is fitted in the spout holding portion.
In the latter, an internal bag is stuck to a blank of a carton so that a spout (previously closed and opened when the internal bag is filled with a content) of the internal bag is fitted in an opening in the blank, and the blank is then stuck in the form of a sack, and this blank is then raised and forms a container, and the container is then filled with the content.
In the above-described container of the former in which the spout-holding portion of the flap support the spout, the spout must be fastened using a jig when the flaps are folded inward so that the spout is fitted in the spout-holding portion. Thus, there are drawbacks that a process for manufacturing the fluid container is complicated and that the size of a fluid container manufacturing plant is large.
In the above-described fluid container of the latter into which a tube (i.e. a carton of which the top and bottom walls have been not yet formed) to which the internal bag has been bonded is raised and built and which is filled with the content, an assembly line of steps of die-cutting a hole in the blank, sticking the internal bag and sticking the blank in the form of a sack is separate from an assembly line of subsequent steps of forming the container and filling the container with the content (e.g. since the processing speed of antecedent step of the process such as the blank sticking step is largely different from that of the subsequent step such as the container forming step or the two assembly lines are placed in different factories).
Therefore, the carton (i.e. tube) having the spout and produced in the antecedent step is carried to the subsequent steps. This case entails a drawback in the tubular carton is bulky because of its projecting spout so that the efficiency of transfer of a large number of tubular cartons is low and so that the number of tubular cartons charged on the subsequent step cannot be large.